No name as of yet, just an agreement. The Sacramento club will face a hell of a time if you look at the current USL Pro map. Thank goodness a Phoenix team will be joining next year or it would be even worse for these road warriors.

Interestingly, they will play at Hughes Stadium, the City College U-shaped stadium I used as an example like the Epicenter will be with an end cut off:

It's good to see both USLPro and NASL growing, along with MLS of course. I want to see the continued growth of the beautiful game.

I do worry a little bit about a team playing in Sacramento in the summer, but night games might not be so stinking hot. And hey, we have a team in Houscum, which is even hotter and more humid.

Oh, and it would be great if they could (at least during the season) cover the track (one side at least) with the grass trays and widen the field. You could get fans closer to the action and get the field closer to proper soccer dimensions. Best of course, would be to rip out the track altogether and just do it right. But that's not going to happen.

WOO! USL Pro is now the 3rd division in the US Soccer pyramid, correct?

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Yup:
1. MLS
2. NASL
3. USL Pro
4-5. Mess of various leagues

Really, I think NASL and USL Pro should merge and be the "second division" or "Minor League Soccer." They're both small leagues in terms of number of teams, merge them together and do an East/West thing. But that will require time healing the wounds that separated the two in the first place, and it would have to overcome the extreme bias towards the East Coast that currently exists in both leagues.

It's good to see both USLPro and NASL growing, along with MLS of course. ... So, three west cost teams for USLPro now: el-lay Blues, FC Phoenix (another hot city), and now Sacramento (2014). Wow.

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I was in opposition to MLS expanding to Sacramento as I see all of Northern California as Earthquakes territory. (there is still a laughable attempt by the city of Elk Grove to land an MLS team - the mayor and whoever has been pushing that are crazy and/or have no idea what the league looks like today). A USL Pro team solves my problem! I can root for the Quakes in MLS and the Sacramento team in USL Pro.

The heat also concerns me; the case can be made comparing it to Houston, but it's nowhere near as miserable as far as heat and we don't have the humidity they get in east Texas. IF games are planned accordingly (i.e. schedule them at night and not in the afternoons) it should be no problem.

I don't know what these leagues have such a presence on the East Coast and next to nothing in the West. With the Cascadia teams moving up to MLS there is a gaping hole, which I think should be filled by USL Development or other teams moving up. I'm honestly surprised there aren't teams like the Fresno Fuego or Ventura County Fusion lobbying for a move up.

The good thing about the stadium location is that while it isn't downtown, it's not out in the burbs. It's at Sac City College, which is the epicenter for young hipsters in Sacramento. It's in a neat part of town, a very centralized location along arterials, which is good for attendance. It will certainly be interesting to see what the city does and what this ownership group can do.

If the Kings leave Sacramento, there will be a gaping hole in our sports market; the Sacramento USL team may slip in at the exact right time to capture the city's attention. That will certainly be a silver lining to an otherwise depressing event..

You're right about the location, even though there is that track around the field, it kind of makes sense. What other ready to use stadium in the middle of Sacramento is there? I even attended Sac City College recently and yes there is a lot of hipsters there (too many for this soccer player/metalhead). Do hipsters like soccer or something? Hopefull with the soccer culture in the city and in conjunction with the new indoor place that opened recently and has the first real futsal court in Sacramento, the USL team will draw crowds. Maybe I will see you at a game, but hopefully I will be playing somewhere by 2014.
Also I know several players who used to play for the Fresno Fuego and it sounds like it is a good organization. It would make sense for teams like them to move up and/or make more teams in central and northern CA

Looking on Google Maps, I see a huge, open chunk of land, next to Sac City, just across the railroad tracks. What is that space? Is there any chance that a piece of it could be used to build a soccer stadium? (Or does it belong to the railroad? or someone else?) Probably just a pipe dream.

So Sac City has a quality women's track program, which means no way does the track come out of Hughes Stadium. I do think my grass trays idea has some merit. The playing field is no doubt crowned, so some sort of tray system could level out the surface (you'd need wrestling pads or some such under parts of it to make it level) and widen the field, without ruining the venue for other uses. You'd just have to schedule the soccer games around other uses of the stadium. Of course, it might be expensive to change the field back and forth, but it would make for better games.

Looking on Google Maps, I see a huge, open chunk of land, next to Sac City, just across the railroad tracks. What is that space? Is there any chance that a piece of it could be used to build a soccer stadium? (Or does it belong to the railroad? or someone else?) Probably just a pipe dream.

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I think they're planning on building houses there, after the hazardous waste from the railroad is removed. Good luck to whomever moves in.

As a Sacrmentonian(?), Sacramentite(?), Sacramentan (?), I believe the better venue for this USL club is Raley Field, which is home to our AAA baseball team. That stadium is much closer to downtown and is walking distance from all the bars and restaurants in Old Sacramento. Raley Field has hosted the Quakes and other soccer matches in past, by putting sod down over the infield dirt. I'm not sure if the field dimensions are adequate to for hosting soccer in league play, but the stadium itself is perfectly sized (about 14K), is only a few years old, and has all the needed amenities.

Field looks a little too narrow but hey whatever, as long as they got a team. I thought the plan though was to go to MLS initially instead of USL or NASL? Isn't that why Gerber hosted mayor of Elk Grove at the MLS Cup Final on Saturday? Whether its a joke or not, from what I read, initial negotiations went well.....

Good, I needed a reason to visit people in Sac. I've enjoyed some SF Bulls hockey games lately, and they're also two tiers below their local counterpart. It's an interesting atmosphere, and fun to see multiple levels of the game/culture.

I remember seeing something the Sac Bee about this last year, or earlier this year. From what I remember reading in the paper it was mostly people in/from Elk Grove trying to make it happen. Maybe Garber is interested, or just wanted to see what the Elk Grove group had to say. Hopefully he holds off on his decision and decides to see how the USLPro team does in actual Sacramento first. I mention that a team in EG would be horrible because it is a hassle driving out there, and its not an appealing place unless you like boring white suburbia. The best MLS atmospheres seem more often to be when the team is in the actual big city they are supposed to be representing.

I remember seeing something the Sac Bee about this last year, or earlier this year. From what I remember reading in the paper it was mostly people in/from Elk Grove trying to make it happen. Maybe Garber is interested, or just wanted to see what the Elk Grove group had to say. Hopefully he holds off on his decision and decides to see how the USLPro team does in actual Sacramento first. I mention that a team in EG would be horrible because it is a hassle driving out there, and its not an appealing place unless you like boring white suburbia. The best MLS atmospheres seem more often to be when the team is in the actual big city they are supposed to be representing.

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Boring white suburbia? Could also be mistaken for a lot of parts of San Jose....

Boring white suburbia? Could also be mistaken for a lot of parts of San Jose....

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True, but there are different parts to San Jose if I'm recalling correctly? And there are boring suburbs in Sacramento as well, but why would you want a team in Elk Grove instead of in Sacramento where there are all kinds of different fans, and more public transportation, nearby bars, pubs, restaurants etc.

True, but there are different parts to San Jose if I'm recalling correctly? And there are boring suburbs in Sacramento as well, but why would you want a team in Elk Grove instead of in Sacramento where there are all kinds of different fans, and more public transportation, nearby bars, pubs, restaurants etc.

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Not really sure about this Elk Grove vs. Sacramento but they wouldn't keep talking about it if there wasn't some truth behind it.

Some interesting tidbits in there, among them, statistics about the Sacramento market, soccer participation/ratings, mentions of possible move up to MLS down the road, a mention of the bogus Elk Grove plan, stuff about USL Pro, and plans for next year. They plan on having many exhibitions next year in preparation for the opening season, against other USL teams but also hope to play against MLS sides (will the Earthquakes make their way up during what is sure to be a busy 2013 season with CL games?) and possibly a Mexican or other foreign league team.

One thing that we have going for entering the league will be it is the same year as the 2014 World Cup. That should provide more visibility for the sport and get more people out to see the new team.